The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
'Lalu is Lalu. His presence in the election campaign will make a difference for the Mahagathbandhan.'
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and not Bharatiya Janata Party, is enemy number one for Rashtriya Janata Dal, party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife Rabri Devi said on Wednesday.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu announced in the House that the election will be held at 11 am on August 9.
The outspoken Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, in a no-holds-barred assault on the Modi government, said its ministers were a "bunch of sycophants" 90 per cent of whom were hardly known to people.
The Janata Dal-United supremo, however, also appeared annoyed with parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha who had recently jumped the gun with the insinuation that the RJD could be trying to 'further the Bharatiya Janata Party's agenda' by refraining from taking action against the minister.
Reacting to the grand old Congress party's decline to the 'pran-pratishtha' ceremony invitations of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya, Digvijaya said that the ruling party had turned the event into a BJP and VHP event.
In terms of electoral fortunes, in all likelihood, the status quo is not going to change in any significant manner. These six seats from Bihar are unlikely to give any clear signal to UPA, NDA or Federal Front.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra on Tuesday claimed that the meeting of the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha was postponed to keep a Congress member away from the proceedings and adopt the report by a majority, prompting a sharp retort from Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey.
Sources said the committee is also expected to underline its unhappiness at the conduct of some opposition members during its proceedings and make a mention of it in its recommendations to the House.
The BJP's Bihar unit responded to the tweet saying, "The first picture is your future and the second is of India. Understood?"
Loss of power in Bihar has upset the Bharatiya Janata Party's calculations for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls but a section of its leaders also see a chance for the party to break the dominance of regional parties in the state, like it has in Uttar Pradesh.
Union minister Raosaheb Danve has caused a flutter by saying if the Bharatiya Janata Party needs victory in the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra in 2024, then it must ensure that All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and sitting MP Imtiaz Jaleel contests the election next year.
The JD-U leader rubbished speculations that he was maintaining an eloquent silence on the issue because of anxieties about tarnishing his own image for probity by aligning with "tainted" politicians and could even be thinking of breaking away with the "Mahagathbandhan", which besides RJD, also includes Congress and the Left.
'Dynastic politics has become a tool of convenience for political parties. The BJP does not hesitate to accept it when it comes to its own alliance or party candidates. The same goes for the others.'
Former Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan on Sunday asserted that every party wants him to be on its side, indicating he could tilt towards the one that offered a better bargain.
All the officials, suspended with immediate effect, have been charged with "failure to take adequate legal action" with regard to "assault.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Bijendra Prasad Yadav, the senior-most minister in the state cabinet, also lamented that the lack of cohesion was causing allies to engage in allegations and counter allegations, a job best left to the Opposition.
'Laluji is like my father and I am like his son.'
Janata Dal-United MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh offered juice to Harivansh to help him break the fast.
Prashant Kishor, a core member of Narendra Modi's election campaign team, is likely to work for Nitish Kumar.
Nitish Kumar has to make an existential choice: Between governance and politics, argues Aditi Phadnis.
The Congress, out of power in Madhya Pradesh for nearly 15 years, has also expressed its willingness to align with like-minded parties to take on the BJP.
The BJP blames Nitish's PM ambition for his decision to walk out of the NDA.
Nitish Kumar, once seen as a potential rival to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, broke ranks with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance coalition on Tuesday to stake claim as head of the rival 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) to be the chief minister of Bihar for the eighth time.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad's 'samdhi' Chandrika Roy has been nominated by the Janata Dal- United from his traditional Parsa assembly seat, but name of the former Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey is missing from the list of 115 candidates released by the party on Wednesday.
'Does a political or social worker ever retire? Is Nitish Kumar himself contesting the assembly elections'
The longest-serving chief minister of any Hindi- speaking state, Nitish Kumar seems to have acquired an aura of indispensability when it comes to the highest seat of power in Bihar.
The Congress should take the lead in resolving differences of opinion within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and show 'large-heartedness' in seat sharing to emerge as a viable alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party in upcoming elections, according to some opposition leaders.
An ugly spat ensued after a JD-U spokesman took potshots at state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal over his offer of help to family members of those who died in a hooch tragedy in West Champaran district last year.
The JD-U supreme leader, whose party, in Parliament, has been supporting the demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe, however, did not seem impressed with the Maratha strongman's preference for an investigation by a 'Supreme Court-appointed Committee'.
Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Thursday took a fresh jibe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his former mentor, reiterating that the latter may ditch the 'Mahagathbandhan' and return to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Varun Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party candidate in Amethi Kumar Vishwas and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan were among the prominent candidates who filed nominations on the fourth day for the penultimate phase of Lok Sabha election covering 64 seats in seven states.
Some constituents of the alliance have raised concern that the panels, particularly the 14-member coordination committee, are at risk of becoming ineffective, as their decisions have so far not been acted upon.
Leave alone taking forward the seat-sharing talks with the existing and probable allies, the Mahagathbandhan remains an amorphous entity weeks before the first phase of polling on October 28, a situation that will make the rival NDA camp, which in any case looks sitting pretty, all the more happier.
During a cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Modi lauded both Naqvi and Singh for their contributions to the country during their ministerial tenure, sources said.
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